Date of Award

4-2026

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelors

Department

Natural Sciences

First Advisor

Soto Shoender, Jose

Area of Concentration

Animal Wellbeing and Conservation

Abstract

Seabirds have been in decline globally with an overall decrease of nearly 70% between 1950 and 2010 highlighting pressure on these systems. Seabirds are important due to the ecosystem functions and services they provide, nutrient transfer, population regulation, ecotourism attraction and overall indicators of ecosystem health. The coast of Chile is a leading area in productivity, resulting in high numbers of seabird species inhabiting its coastal areas. Additionally, it is a leading country in the fishing community, leading to an overlap between fisheries and seabird communities. While there are other threats such as invasive species and climate change contributing to population decline, this study focuses on anthropogenic impacts linked to fisheries because of the extensive overlap. In this study, I conducted a literature review to better understand how fisheries may be contributing to a decline of seabirds in Chile. I analyzed peer reviewed literature, government websites and available grey literature. I found that fisheries impact seabirds through three main mechanisms, a decline in fish stock, increased fishing discards, and bycatch. Over 27 different species have been documented to be impacted by fisheries interactions; diving and scavenging species are particularly vulnerable to net entanglements and incidental capture. A review on legislation and policies revealed that while Chile has various protection policies, enforcement is not equally distributed across the entire coast, leaving certain areas more vulnerable than others. While this study suggests that fisheries may be the major contributor to declining seabird populations through bycatch rates, further research is necessary on spatiotemporal analysis of impacts as well as how seabird declines affect diversity and community structure. My study sheds light on the impacts of fisheries on seabird populations and the need for increased protection and enforcement as well as awareness to effectively implement new polices.

Rights

The author has granted New College of Florida the nonexclusive right to archive, make accessible, and distribute for educational purposes this work in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. The copyright of this work remains with the author.

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